You see, if marketing was just about playing tricks and games to grab someone's attention or to deliver a PR message, then it would be the most ridiculous job in the world. This is my real issue regarding almost 90% of the content/campaigns you see on different mediums: they tend to neglect fundamental marketing questions. What is your campaign objective, and how does it tie up to your brand's fundamental purpose?
Let me elaborate on this and explain why I chose this example. You see, "Payless ShoeSource made a fake luxury brand and tricked fashion influencers into spending 640 for their discount kicks — a 1,800% markup on shoes that normally retail for around $35. On the one foot, the publicity stunt showed the only difference between Payless and luxury shoes is a brand name. On the other foot, it proved “expert” fashion influencers can’t tell a discount sneaker from a designer collectible."
That's very well and good if you ask me, so the objective here is clear that the company wanted to call out influencers that don't know their shit. This worked well as a PR stunt, but the question is, HOW DID THAT CAMPAIGN PAY OFF FOR THEIR BRAND? How did this PR stunt help the brand further raise its own value perception proposition? Do you think after that stunt, Payless re-positioned itself to an untapped consumer segment? Did their value proposition to their core consumer get better? Not necessarily true.
Actually, 2 months later:
Read that again please, ALL ITS LOCATIONS ACROSS THE US. Holy moly, WE'VE TRICKED OURSELVES! I guess that's how the board found themselves less than 2 months after the entire world was talking about them! Well, you're probably wondering, but why? How the heck can a company that pulled such a PR/Marketing stunt fail miserably?
It's really simple; let's go back to the basic model of marketing- AIDA.
Attention - Yes, the company couldn't have gotten more attention to its brand. They nailed it on that front.
Interest - Epic Fail. The campaign didn't deliver more interest to the Payless shoes. Just because the company proved that even influencers get tricked by buying "overpriced" shoes, it doesn't serve any good for the Payless brand itself.
Desire - Epic Fail. I don't believe that the desire to wear Payless shoes got any uplift. The campaign called out on luxury brands being overpriced for nothing, but did it address why consumers weren't buying their brand? Not necessarily.
Actionability- Epic Fail, Did consumers flock to Payless shoe stores to buy their shoes after that PR stunt? Absolutely not.
It's always sad to see brands flop and businesses close. Closures affect many people, and it's not comfortable for me to write about failures, but the whole point is to learn from mistakes and evolve as marketers to not get wowed by the bells, claps, and whistles. They are nice to have when they happen, but that's not why we do the job. We grow businesses carefully and meticulously. Never forget the objective. Never forget the real purpose of your brand. You could have the best marketing stunt in the world but ask yourself repeatedly, will this create value to my proposition or not? If your answer is, "no" then you know what to do. Change it.
I hope you have enjoyed this week's blog. Please leave your comments below, and you can now subscribe to the blog by entering your email address. If you have any cases that you would like me to discuss or have any questions, please email me at Shereba@brandmeup.co.
Until next time, let's BrandMup.
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